About GEARS
“When we revolt it’s not for a particular culture. We revolt simply because, for many reasons, we can no longer breathe.”
— Frantz Fanon
“Bombs and pistols do not make revolution. The sword of revolution is sharpened on the whetting-stone of ideas”
— Bhagat Singh
Knowledge in Service of Resistance: Empire & Resistance Conference
Empire is a powerful analytical and metaphoric tool for clarifying not only global politics, but also cultural and economic systems; historical dynamics; and systems of oppression and marginalization. At the same time, the term ‘empire’ is multifaceted, applied to sociopolitical systems ranging from 14th Century China to the British Empire and multinational capitalism. Resistance, too, is a powerful yet opaque term. It is ‘uncovered’ and ‘recovered’ through historical and anthropological research. It includes everything from speaking a forbidden language in the home to large-scale armed conflict waged by guerrilla movements or even conventional armies.
The mission of the Empire & Resistance Conference is not to ‘clarify’ or even to ‘debate’ these terms. It is not to impose a ‘correct’ definition of them upon an imagined academic subfield of ‘Empire and Resistance Studies.’ Rather, the mission of ERC is to bring together cultural workers, resistance practitioners, academics and others with an interest in understanding Empire, imperial systems and structures, and forms and practices of Resistance to Empire.
Rooted firmly in this nexus between ‘theory’ and ‘praxis,’ Empire & Resistance is committed to approaches that eschews turf wars and siloes between ‘specialists’ and ‘laypeople’; between ‘academics’ and practitioners; and between various subfields of the academy with an interest in Empire. Further, Empire & Resistance seeks to avoid the kind of jargon that separates the academy from real people living with and fighting back against Empire.
We further recognise that this siloing (between knowledge workers & culture workers; between resistance practitioners & the academy; etc.) is a structural and systemic product of Empire itself, not an individual failing. We seek to approach discussions with a view to growth, both in terms of tools & practices, and in terms of growing a community producing critical knowledge & practice in confronting Empire.
Seeking to serve as a nexus between the academy, cultural workers, and practitioners of resistance, ERC unapologetically pursues knowledge in service to resistance. Bringing together a broad range of individuals and organizations with an interest in both intellectually analyzing and physically resisting Imperial and Imperious systems, ECR seeks to serve as a site producing knowledge that informs the theory and practice of resistance, generating critical understanding of Empire useful to individuals and organizations seeking to challenge and dismantle Imperial systems.
We hope that by uniting to elevate stories and campaigns of resistance in the past, present and future, we will be able to contribute to the active dismantling of colonial ideologies and structures which continue to exist globally. Within this aim, we align ourselves with an explicitly anti-colonial perspective.
We aim to break down all kinds of supremacy and intellectual hierarchies within the communities we work with. We accept the fact many of us benefit from our positionality, particularly those of us living as settlers on land we recognise as stolen, and those of us living in ex-colonising nations, and the privilege this entails. We seek to honour, respect and recognise indigenous communities across the territories discussed and represented within the organisation. We also recognise that we are far from the first organisation to challenge imperialism or settler colonialism, and that we stand on the shoulders of Black, Indigenous, Queer and Disabled activists who have historically worked to dismantle the structures of oppression we interact with.
We are an inclusive collective and we are dedicated to welcoming and creating a community which welcomes all, regardless of race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, nationality, disability, age, and positionality within or external to the academy. If you share our values, you will find a welcoming community within the conference on Global Empire and Resistance Scholarship.
GEARS Code of Ethics
No member of the board, officer, or anyone otherwise affiliated with the organization will say or do anything that could result in actual or potential harm to the organization (see #1). Any person or persons whose behavior damages the organization will be removed from any and all of their positions in the organization.
No board member or officer should conduct or support any research or scholarship contradictory to the mission of the organization.
No board member or officer should conduct or support any research or scholarship that could damage the organization in any form or fashion.
No member of the board, officer, or anyone otherwise affiliated with the organization will engage in any intentional racist, sexist, classist, homophobic, transphobic, ableist, or otherwise discriminatory behavior (see above). All members of the board, officers, and anyone otherwise affiliated with the organization should be open to interrogating their own unexamined biases as it relates to reproducing oppression.
The board of directors shall make a concerted effort to hear the voices of all board members, officers, and members of any subsidiary committees.
We will seek to counter imbalances frequently present within academic and activist engagement on topics around Empire, resistance, coloniality.
We actively recognise and will actively seek to confront colonial legacies.
We will investigate and critically examine all businesses we accept sponsorship or funding with to ensure that they align with these values and are not engaging in any practices or strategies that harm colonised peoples or BIPOC.
We will not profit from our efforts to decolonise academic dialogue surrounding Empire and Resistance.
We exist beyond the confines or infrastructure of any university, recognising that universities are frequently spaces of harm and profiteering from colonial legacies. By working outside the university we see to capture our members’ lived experiences within a safe space, and resist creating value for the university.
We strive to work against the grain of Eurocentric attempts to decolonise. We recognise the importance of histories of African American and black British history and literature, but we want these to be equally recognised alongside histories from Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, Asia and Oceania, and territories commonly referred to as the ‘Global South’.
We recognize that academic research and scholarship often leads to burnout among faculty and practitioners at all levels. The Empire and Resistance Conference pledges to routinely check in on the health and well-being of all board members, officers, and people otherwise affiliated with the organization, as the work of this conference should not be detrimental to anyone's well-being, and will rotate positions and share responsibilities whenever and however possible.
We recognize that tenure and promotion practices within the academy are not always conducive to scholarship that could be considered critical, radical, or otherwise engaged with the issues the conference wishes to publicize. We also recognize that work in the academy is often hyper-individualized and emphasizes individual success over collective growth and achievement. Our board of directors, officers, and those otherwise affiliated with the organization pledge to create a culture of mutual respect and cooperation within the organization and recognize the importance of working side-by-side in pursuit of the values outlined in this document.